


Soothe

by Tonko



Series: Overlap 'verse [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 10:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10739706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tonko/pseuds/Tonko
Summary: Paulie gets a sunburn. Kaya helps.





	Soothe

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story spun off of the alt-Sunny from my fic Overlap ([gen link](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10739517), [het link](http://archiveofourown.org/works/262193)). In this universe, Ace is Sunny's captain, and likewise his Spade Pirates are composed of "alternates" to the Mugiwara we know, notably Kuina instead of Zoro which was the focus of Overlap. The only OC exception is their cook Lucky Jumper, who is a Lapahn, and replaces Chopper.

They anchored to resupply at an uninhabited summer island, during its summer season. The blue, cloudless sky belied the thick and incredibly humid air that blanketed the island and its immediate vicinity. Ace was making an expression of distaste even before they disembarked, and Lucky's long ears wilted visibly. He took his human form without much improvement.

And almost everyone removed much of their clothing, despite Kaya's warnings.

Lucky, Ace and Bentham, went into the forest after the fruit trees they'd seen from the ship, and fared well enough--at least there was shade. Not that Kaya thought Ace could sunburn at all.

Gin and Nojiko accepted the jar of sunblock lotion she'd offered them before they headed up the coast on Mini-Merry to confirm the river they'd seen meeting the sea was fresh water.

Paulie gave the one she offered him a dismissive glance, and then peeled off his shirt and got to work with the adjustments he felt needed to be made from the rigging, a coil of rope slung across his chest.

When she and Kuina returned from their foray along the coast for medicinal plants, his shoulders were visibly red.

Kaya offered the sunscreen again, and he once again ignored it. Kuina raised her eyebrows, mock-impressed. "Where's Lucky?" she called up. "Looks like lobster for dinner!" 

Kaya elbowed her. "That doesn't help!" 

"It's too late anyway," Kuina said with a snort, "he's already burned, so he won't give in." 

Kaya shook her head, but Kuina had a point there.

By supper--for which Lucky served absolutely everything chilled--Paulie could indeed have rivaled a cooked lobster for the virulent red across his shoulders. His face, back, chest and upper arms were slightly less burned, but only just, and Kaya watched Paulie press fingers from one hand against the opposite shoulder with a poorly suppressed wince. He met her concerned look with one of embarrassed disgruntlement and waved her off.

She wasn't going to corner him now--Kuina already wasn't letting him hear the end of it--but she prepared the supplies she would need for later.

Hours after supper, the ship was dark, only a few lanterns lit. The moon was full, and the night was shaping up to be as heavy and hot as the day. The sea breeze was lighter, at least, and it made the heat just tolerable out on deck.

With Sunny quietly creaking under the stars, the new rigging work still settling in, Kaya sat on the steps just outside the kitchen, looking at the constellations overhead, the moon on the water, and waiting for Paulie to come down from his watch; Nojiko had just gone up to relieve him. Everyone else was asleep, but tonight they were sprawled variously across the lawn deck, avoiding the stifling cabins.

And there Paulie was. Someone trying to climb down ship rigging when their skin had to feel like it was on fire was quite distinctive. Kaya pressed her lips together and stood, making her quiet way across the deck. She stepped carefully over Bentham's long legs, and her passing slightly roused Lucky--the lightest sleeper among them--and he half-opened one dark eye at her before curling back against Bentham's side again. Kaya kept moving, and went to stand by the rigging to wait for Paulie to come down.

Paulie's movements were reluctant and made with frequent pauses; the irregularity of his breathing as he tried to stop the skin across his back from stretching--she grimaced sympathetically. Paulie let go before he was quite at the bottom, and dropped the last to feet to land heavily. He swallowed most of a groan as he straightened up, then startled hard enough to move back a step when he saw her there.

"Do we need to put a bell on you?" he muttered quietly and without heat, his eyes, as always whenever she changed clothes, doing that strange reluctant skip down and back up her body. He'd stopped snapping at her for what she wore on any given day ages ago, but his odd, defensive modesty remained.

"Come," she told him, without keeping the chiding from her voice, and watched him bristle, start to straighten fully. His eye twitched with the discomfort of that. "I can help with that," she said firmly, and turned back towards the galley. She looked back once over her shoulder to make sure he was following, and indeed he was trailing sullenly after her, picking his way between their crewmates, nearly tripping over Ace when their captain rolled over as he went past.

He sat where she pointed on the steps that rose to the galley deck, produced a cigar from somewhere, and stuck it between his teeth unlit while Kaya went inside to fetch her supplies from the refrigerator. 

"Drink this, please," she said, holding a mug down towards him. He eyed it suspiciously. "It's only water," she told him. "Your body needs extra fluids after today, like with any kind of burn."

She set her supplies out and sat on the step behind him. 

"Didn't get like this at Water 7," Paulie muttered. "Could still wear a damn shirt on hot days without melting."

"Hmm," she acknowledged. In the dark the intensity of the red was not as apparent, even in the pool of light from the lantern over the galley door, but the blistering she could see starting across his shoulders and the heat that rose off his skin when she held her open palm over it told her just how bad it was.

He removed the unlit cigar from his mouth and took a sip of the water. Kaya "I'm starting," she warned, and got an acknowledging grunt in return. The aloe cream had a touch of fast-acting numbing agent in it--it would give an initial temporary ease while the rest of the medicinal ingredients sunk in, but that still wasn't quick enough to make applying it much easier. 

His back was broader than it usually seemed under his usual shirts and jackets, muscles shifting slightly as she got ready, shoulder blades and spine outlined in soft shadows. 

Beyond him, below on the lawn, Ace muttered and stretched, scratched his belly and subsided again, his low snoring picking up its familiar tune. 

The first touch of her fingers, the dollop of thick ointment made the skin of Paulie's back twitch, and he made a grunt of discomfort.

And then he didn't say anything more, just stayed quiet except for the occasional reaction in his breathing to her hands smoothing the ointment across the terrible sunburn. She applied it liberally across both shoulders, and worked it down his back, the stuff shining on his back in the mingled moon and lantern light.

Kaya came around to the front of him, and his eyes widened, gaze fixing past her shoulder as she leaned in to examine the burns on the tops of his ears and across his cheeks. The flush in his face seemed to visibly darken as she drew nearer. He blinked and she heard him swallow. She kept her face still as she could. Kuina and Nojiko might needle him constantly about his peculiar regard for women, and Kaya hadn't completely avoided teasing him from time to time, but it would be so unkind to do it now.

She spread the ointment where it needed to go down his arms, and as she was dabbing it across his left forearm she realized two things at once; first that he was looking at her instead of past her, now, and second, he could certainly be doing this part himself.

Her movement ceased briefly as the thoughts occurred. She looked up at him, met eyes that looked quickly away and then back. There was a curiosity there that she'd never seen before, tentative but visible. Usually when she had to treat him he was unconscious or irritated and arguing. She felt warmth bloom over her own face, a rush strong enough to make her cheeks tingle.

She looked down at the jar she held, suddenly unsure, "Would you rather..?" she offered it to him. Paulie drew back a little, didn't take it.

"It's fine," he said, and he sounded breathless. 

Oh… "Alright," she answered.

She lightly spread the ointment on his ears and his face. He closed his eyes as she smoothed her thumb over his burned cheeks, opened them again when she moved on and worked her way down his chest, his heart beating fast against her fingertips through his too-hot skin. Her face stayed warm the entire time. 

And then she was done.

"There," she said softly, standing back.

Paulie's eyes were wide again, and they regarded each other for a few moments until he stood up in a rush, the motion much smoother than earlier on the rigging. He looked down at her, blond hair catching lantern light on one side and moonlight on the other, his face still far too flushed for it to be just the burn. "Thanks," he managed.

She smiled. He stared at her, transfixed. 

She wondered if he wanted to kiss her. She thought she might like that.

It didn't seem fair for her just to kiss him, though, not like this. Curiosity, fascination… Kaya wasn't sure that was enough to dare pushing him further when he didn't seem to cope with attraction quite correctly to begin with.

"Finish this," she told him quietly, and pushed the cup of water at him. He nodded once, jerkily, took it, and fled. There wasn't really another way to put it. Up onto the galley deck, and then aft, and he was out of sight.

She watched him go, then replaced her supplies where they belonged, and went to join everyone else on the lawn deck to sleep. She lay back next to Kuina, drifted her eyes over the stars until they closed. The lawn was firm under her back, the air moved gently over her, and she could still feel his heartbeat under her fingertips.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was a present for [printfogey](http://archiveofourown.org/users/printfogey/profile), faintly inspired by a memory of [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/490764) work of hers, which is just lovely.


End file.
